DAP opinions endorsed
Dear Echo News,
The Darlington Ratepayers and Residents Association (DRRA) endorse the opinions expressed in two recent letters Democracy dead in planning and DAP failing our democracy.
Darlington residents saw at first hand the workings of DAP when, without visiting the site and against strong opposition from local residents, a unanimous Mundaring council vote, and concern from teachers at Darlington Primary School – DAP approved a childcare centre opposite the school and at the entry to a narrow cul-de-sac identified by Mundaring Shire as an ‘entrapment road’ in a bushfire.
With a weighted panel of three external planners to two local council representatives, DAP has garnered a reputation for riding roughshod over community wishes and local council decisions – and this slow death of democracy in planning decisions continues.
Concerns around the certain increase in traffic in an already congested area and the obvious flaws in the bushfire management plan that were identified by the community to the DAP panel were unheard.
At the DAP hearing, the DRRA representative read a Department of Fire and Emergency Services statement that “introducing a facility that hosts vulnerable community members into a bushfire prone area increases their risk of exposure to the hazard of bushfire” and “any assessment of risk should take into account not only the risk to the occupier but the aggregated risk to the broader community through the introduction of such a facility”.
It made no difference to the DAP decision that residents consider is one of the most dangerous to be made in relation to our village.
Given the bushfire evacuation plan Briscola has in place, we wonder if DAP or Briscola Pty Ltd had pause for thought given the two fires in quick succession that put Darlington at risk this summer and necessitated residents to choose to leave their homes, and the resulting difficulties in evacuation that residents experienced.
Karen Gray
DRRA chair
Hospital demolition by neglect
Dear Echo News,
Swan districts hospital - what a disgrace that a functioning hospital was closed, when everyone knows we need hospitals.
The money wasted on so called security should have been spent on refurbishment for use as aged care facility for the aging population of the Midland and surrounding Swan Valley area or even as a hospital.
I hear there is asbestos in the facility and maybe money wasted on security could have been spent on remediation - it would have gone a long way.
With all the staff, patients and visitors that have been through the facility is there any statistics on those that have acquired asbestos related diseases?
Probably more chance of contracting disease now due to the vandalism that has gone on there.
B Bates
Millendon
Rezone land back to rural
Dear Echo News,
Thank you to the Echo for bringing hills residents up-to-date with the protracted saga of the Satterley Property Group/Anglican Diocese attempt to urbanise the Perth Hills – because we know that, given the church’s landholdings across the hills, the proposed North Stoneville township, if approved, would mean the beginning of the end of the Perth Hills as we know them.
Your report Satterley Nth Stoneville appeal reopening bid rejected outlined the State Administrative Tribunal’s rejection of Satterley’s bid to reopen its North Stoneville appeal by proposing a township-wide strata arrangement restricting what could be planted across 534 hectares and 1001 lots.
Thank goodness SAT’s Henry Jackson rightly acknowledged such a model as “unprecedented” and “extraordinary”, thus injecting some much-needed sanity into a saga that has gone on for far too long.
You have to ask how many chances (and over how many years) does the WA Government allow a developer to propose/amend/delay/tweak/seek to reopen its appeal against a much-rejected structure plan?
How many more taxpayer dollars need to be sunk into reaching a determination on a proposal that goes against best-practice planning and has already been comprehensively rejected, multiple times, by the WA Planning Commission, Department of Fire and Emergency Services, the Shire of Mundaring and the Perth Hills community.
Now is the time for the state government to do the right thing by the Perth Hills community and government agencies that have invested far too much time in opposing an unworkable, inappropriate proposal (six years in SAT, a decade in the Shire of Mundaring).
The state government needs to rezone this land back to rural residential – as requested by the Shire of Mundaring and Save Perth Hills.
In doing so, the land would align with surrounding properties and could be appropriately developed.
T Wiltshire
Darlington
Long live Harry Potter
Dear Echo News,
I have enough negative views about this Jorgensen Park event, which commenced its life as a golf course.
Those of you who are against this event, do you realise how much harm you are inducing on our community, because your self-interests, no respect to fellow community members, and your refusal to go with the times.
Little do you care about our future viability and the opportunities for our youth to find local employment, and for business to prosper.
Due to state governments negative attitude on subdivision up here, how are we able to prosper with the prospect of limited realises of vacant land?
Tourism, it’s that simple, and this is a golden opportunity to show case as to what we can offer.
Just imagine the tourist dollars that will be injected into our community and help support our struggling business (just look at all the vacant shops) but not just during this event. But people who have never come up here, may come up again to see our uniqueness: Stirk Park, our cafes and craft shops, not to mention our hiking trails though our wondrous forests.
We have so much to offer, we just need to be found out, and this is our time to rise and shine.
If you don’t like all of this, Wundowie, is nice and secluded, I am sure you will be welcomed.
Long live Harry Potter, and may the force be with you.
R Furfaro
Kalamunda
